Food Finds Friday: Fall Favorites

First, I would like to apologize for so much alliteration in the title. It was just so perfect. Alright. So, first of all, dear vegans, Fall is coming, and with it, the jealous lusting after pumpkin spice lattes that still aren't vegan. (Though, if you have seen those ingredient list things circulating the internet, you're probably a lot less jealous now.) I'm sorry to say that I have yet to come up with the perfect vegan pumpkin spice latte. I'll work on that. But I have found some delicious things that will make it all better. (Hopefully.)

First, Archer Farms hot chocolate. I'm pretty sure it's available at Target exclusively. I haven't checked all the flavors they have, but FYI, not all of them are vegan. I do know that the dark chocolate, peppermint, and coconut macaroon flavors are vegan though. I like making them with either coconut milk or almond milk, which makes them super-creamy and wonderful. If you're a fan of Mayan/Aztec hot chocolate, you can add a VERY SMALL dash of cayenne pepper to your dark chocolate powder to give it that tiny extra kick. Be SUPER careful though. The only way to fix it if you add too much pepper is to make a ton more of the hot chocolate, and mix them all together until it's diluted enough. (Then you'd probably have to store the rest in the fridge and reheat it when you're ready to drink it.) So, while it's not a pumpkin spice latte, I hope this is a fall beverage you'll enjoy.



The other find I have for you today actually IS pumpkin spice. However, it's not a drink. Pumpkin Spice WAFFLES, everybody. These are gluten-free, AND vegan. On top of that, they're made with super-healthy things like quinoa and flax. OMG. I cannot express in words how delicious these are. My little sister, who is neither gluten-free, nor vegan, ate an entire box of them while I wasn't looking. This might be my new answer to "If you were stranded on an island with only one food, what would it be?" Last time I checked, Whole Foods had them on sale. Try them! You will like them! You will see! I think I'm going to go clean out my freezer so I can just load up my freezer completely full of these. (Perhaps I should just come up with a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin spice waffle recipe on my own. OMG SO YUMMY.) This is fabulous as breakfast or dessert. Or both.



Do yourself a favor, and go try both these things. After you've tried them, I'm betting you won't miss the PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) at all. VEGAN PUMPKIN POWER! Let me know how you like these in the comments below! Also, If you have found any other fabulous pumpkin things, let me know! I want pumpkin all the things.

Food Finds Friday: Faux at Trader Joe's

I love Trader Joe's. It's a cute grocery store, it has lots of gluten free and vegan products, and it's inexpensive. We got one in my city a few years ago, and since then, I've fallen in love. While I could go on for ages about the wonderful things I've found there, this post is going to focus on only faux dairy products.

 

First, they have some amazing soy coffee creamer. (Not to mention amazing coffee.) I love this stuff. It's delicious, and it helps me survive mornings.

Next, I've found the most wonderful vegan cream cheese there. You may recall a post I wrote a while back that compared different vegan cream cheeses. Oh my. If I'd found this stuff then, I would have included it. This is the most delicious vegan cream cheese I've ever tried. The texture isn't 100% like the real stuff, it doesn't taste 100% like the real stuff, but guess what it is 100% of? BETTER!  Oh my goodness. I make whatever excuse I can to eat it. It's amazing. Love at first bite.

My last favorite to mention now is maybe not really faux dairy, because most sorbet doesn't have dairy anyway, but if you think of it as fake ice cream, I think it counts. Trader Joe's mango sorbet is divine. I adore this stuff. In moderation of course. My sister on the other hand, would eat the whole carton while I'm not looking if I'm not careful.

I hope this has been helpful! There are so many other wonderful things at Trader Joe's, like vegan yogurt, tofu, vegan hot dogs (they're also gluten free by the way,) etc. And I plan to write about more amazing finds from there soon. Have you find anything wonderful at Trader Joe's? Let me know about it! Leave a comment, and share with your friends!

(Vegan) Cream Cheese Comparisons

A thousand apologies everyone, for somewhat vanishing this past semester. College is a lot busier than I expected it to be. Being an art student, I don't have the luxury of plain and simple homework that you just have to get done. Art homework, such as sketches, and also in my case, apparel construction (sewing), takes a long time. I just didn't have a lot of time to blog. I probably would have died of never sleeping if I had. Anyway, I'm going to try to post a lot over the break, and get more posts ready to post during next semester. Today I am not blogging about a TVCC recipe, but instead offering a bit of insight for choosing between brands of vegan cream cheese, as the title suggests.

Seeing as a lot of holiday recipes call for cream cheese, like dips, or cheese balls, or cheese cake, or marble brownies, or cheese danish, etc. and presumably, my wonderful readers might want to veganize their classic recipes, I would like to offer you a bit of insight as to what brands to choose for what. Here are my top 3 favorites.

#3: Go Veggie!

This cream cheese is a good one for recipes. The taste is just fine. There is just something off about the texture. It doesn't have the real cream cheese feel to it. The texture is what gives it away as fake. If you can get over the weirdness about the texture, then feel free to enjoy it spread on whatever you like, but I just would only use it for cooking or baking recipes where the texture gets lost in the other ingredients.

I must say though, I can totally get over the texture to put the strawberry cream cheese on gluten-free, vegan English muffins. I know strawberry-flavored stuff doesn't really taste like strawberries, but I'm a sucker for it anyway.

#2: Daiya

 

Alright, so I haven't tried the strawberry version of this stuff yet. That is on my list of things-to-do. However, as far as the plain goes, it's pretty good. The texture, while not 100% perfect, is at least MUCH better than Go Veggie's. The taste is also pretty good, though I find it a little on the salty side. It tastes like they used the same base as they use for their vegan cheeses. So basically, it tastes a little bit like a cheese spread and not cream cheese. Really though, it isn't bad. The flavor is really growing on me. I think it is best in recipes that are more savory. I haven't tried it in any dessert recipes, but again, it is  more on the salty side, and I'm afraid of a recipe not turning out right because of that. But I'm sure it would be great for holiday dips and spreads, cheese balls, etc. It would also taste pretty good in vegan sushi, or roll-up and wrap sandwiches.

#1: Tofutti

 

I gotta say, this stuff is still my ultimate favorite. It gets the flavor extremely well, and the texture is PERFECT. It is great plain, or in whatever kind of recipes you want to use it in. It also tastes great with cinnamon-sugar on toast by the way. If you've never tried it, you need to. This is my go-to for vegan cheesecake too. OMG. That is amazing. (Last year I posted about vegan eggnog cheesecake that I'd made with this stuff. Check it out!) I really really really love this brand. For example, in high school economics class, we had a project in which we had a fake budget and spent our fake money on stocks and managed a stock profile and stuff, and this was a company that I kept on my stock profile. By the way, if anyone is looking to buy stocks in vegan food companies, Tofutti's stocks tend to be pretty steady. They don't always grow that much, but you at least won't likely lose a lot of money. (That tip was free, by the way.) And who knows, if everyone starts using this amazing stuff more often, maybe it will grow in stock value. Whatever. The only thing that isn't amazing about this stuff is the package design. I think that the package looks a little bit outdated based on the colors and design scheme, but hey. Don't judge by outward appearances right? The package doesn't make it taste any less amazing. 

Okay. I hope that was helpful to everyone! If you make any recipes with vegan cream cheese, I'd love to hear your thoughts and see your pictures! Who knows, maybe if I like your stuff, I'll feature you! I'd love to do some features on this blog, so go ahead and impress me. I love vegan cream cheese recipes. Good luck everybody, and Happy Christmas!

CTTVCC: Hangover Helper

Turn to page 38. Alright everyone. Let me just start off by saying that this is a phenomenal recipe. I may have mentioned before that I have never been a big fan of mayonnaise in the past. However, it made this breakfast sandwich taste super-delicious! In fact, probably because of this very recipe, I am beginning to really like the stuff. Really. I love the way that the taste of the veganaise combines with the flavor of the cheese. It is probably one of my favorite breakfast recipes I've made so far. Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day. In fact, I'd probably be perfectly content to pretty much just eat breakfast food for the rest of ever. I mean, really. I'ts all kinds of delicious.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
• salt, pepper, and onion powder, to taste
• 8 vegan chicken strips, thawed
• 2 slices vegan cheese
• 1 bagel, sliced in half

I used Follow Your Heart Original Veganaise for this recipe. I wanted to get the reduced fat stuff, but I didn't want that to maybe interfere with the flavor the first time I tried this recipe, as diet foods often do. 

I chose Beyond Meat lightly seasoned chicken-free strips because they are gluten-free and vegan. They also have one of the most convincing meat textures I've ever come across in fake meat. 

Any flavor of vegan cheese would probably work fine, and you don't have to get the pre-sliced stuff, but I chose Daiya Cheddar Slices. Admittedly, slices are a bit easier to work with.

I also have yet to find gluten-free, vegan bagels, so I again used English muffins instead. I used Food For Life brown rice English muffins, which are very yummy, just in case you were wondering. Also, one advantage of English muffins over bagels, is that you don't have food falling through the hole in the middle.

Here is what my finished sandwich looked like: 

This was super-yummy, and I will definitely be making this again. It's packed with protein and yummy veganness so I'm sure it would be great for making sure you can kick start your day with energy. It's also not the messiest thing out there, so you can eat it while you're getting ready in the morning. I seriously want another one of these RIGHT NOW. I'm sure you'll be as impressed with them as I was. This is definitely on my go-to recipes list. You know, to be honest, this would make a good power-snack, or lunch or even a light dinner. EAT IT FOR ALL THE MEALS! Enjoy!

CTTVCC: Georgia Peach Cobbler

I apologize in advance for the unexpected, and thus, unannounced hiatus from my blog. There has recently been a series of unfortunate events in my life. . . More like tragedies actually. A girl who used to go to my school was murdered by her boyfriend, one of my cats passed away of old age, (Rest in peace, Arwen.) and my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital. I've been rather busy. But enough sad stories, let's get to talking about yummy food!

This scrumptious, and not-completely-bad-for-you dessert is located on page 295. This is a great comfort food, especially for those times when you have already eaten a whole pan of brownies, and you still need some comforting. This fruity goodness just wants to give your tummy a hug. I don't know about you, but I crave chocolate during the winter, but during the summer, I tend to want fruity desserts. Perhaps that's because subconsciously, I know that summer is the season of fruit, and that's why I want it more then. Anyway, this is something you should try next time you're feeling down. This relatively healthy, light, fruity dessert will make your tummy (and hopefully you,) happier in no time!

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (15 ounce) can peaches with syrup
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup corn flakes or granola
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

I used generic peaches but I made sure to get the kind that's in light syrup. This recipe would probably still work even if you got peaches "in their own juice" if you want to be extra-healthy. 

I used generic quick oats, cinnamon and brown sugar. Because I love cinnamon, I used a whole teaspoon of it. Cinnamon is great for you though, so I don't care if it's not exactly following the recipe. Speaking of not following the recipe exactly, I kind of went a little crazy with the oatmeal and granola layers, and ended up using twice the amount of the mixture then it called for. Oh well.

Here is my finished cobbler:

As you can see, the fruit to oats ratio is way off. It was still delicious. This is one of the simplest dessert recipes that I've ever made, and it's extremely satisfying. If I hadn't already decided not to remake recipes for myself until I'd gone through that recipe's whole section in the cookbook, I think I would end up making this 50 times before I finished everything else in desserts. I also would totally eat this for breakfast as well because it's got fruit, granola and oatmeal. That makes it breakfast food too, right? Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe just like I did!

CTTVCC: Wicked Good Wafflewich

This recipe is found on page 71. Is this dessert or is it breakfast? Who cares? Not me! It's delicious. It was not as messy as it seemed like it was going to be, and it was really tasty. I am not quite sure it could really claim to be good for you, but it's not really bad for you either. This seems like a really good comfort food though. Bad test? Bad day? Bad breakup? I could see myself going through a stack of these.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 vegan waffles, toasted
• Vegan chocolate chips, to taste
• Peanut butter, to taste
• Maple syrup, to taste

I used Van's original gluten-free, (also vegan) waffles. They're pretty good. If I didn't know they were gluten-free and vegan, I wouldn't think they were. 

I used Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips, generic peanut butter, and I used agave nectar instead of maple syrup. I think that the taste of the agave was actually better than it would have been with maple syrup, because it is a light flavor, and allows you to enjoy the chocolate and peanut butter without their flavors being overpowered.

Here is my finished breakfast:

Like I was saying, this recipe is great. It's indulgent, yet it won't forever ruin your figure, I'm sure, you know, with moderation and all that stuff. Whatever. It's definitely got a great flavor and it's so simple! I don't think I would have come up with it on my own. I wouldn't have put peanut butter and syrup (or agave) on the same wafflewich, and I don't think I would have put the chocolate chips on. I would have probably been boring, and used something like, I don't know, jelly. I hope you all enjoy this recipe!

CTTVCC: Brainy Bac'n Cheese Toast

This yummy recipe can be found on 37. This is listed as a breakfast recipe. However, It didn't really taste breakfast-y to me. In fact, I ate it for lunch. It was very good though. It had a good savory taste and I liked it a lot, even though I am not that big a fan of tomatoes. It has a great combination of flavors that makes each bite taste just as delicious as the bite before it. It would take a lot of these sandwiches to start noticing the law of diminishing return. (Thank you, economics class.) 

The recipe calls for:

• 2 slices bread, toasted
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 tablespoons vegan bacon bits
• 2 slices vegan cheddar cheese

I used Food for Life Gluten-Free Brown Rice Bread, which I then proceeded to toast. The nice thing about rice bread is that is is very moist and soft, so when you toast it, it gets lightly crisped on the outside, and it's still soft on the inside. Perfection.

I used a combination of cherry tomatoes and yellow grape tomatoes just to be more colorful and fun. You know, give it variety and all that good stuff. Retrospectively, I wish I had made a little checkerboard pattern, just to be extra fun and cutesies. Oh well. I also think that maybe this recipe would be better (at least with gluten-free bread, which tends to be smaller,) with 6 halved cherry tomatoes rather than 8. When I was eating it, it seemed that one of the tomatoes was always falling out.

I used Frontier Bac'uns for the vegan bacon bits. They were pretty good. They had a nice crunch to them, which was pretty good. Squishy-bacony-fat always disgusted me. Ugh. Even just thinking about it. I must say though, I would recommend cutting the bacon bits in half. Not literally cutting each bit in half of course, but only using 2 tablespoons. I think that 4 tablespoons was just too much of a good thing. I couldn't get them all to stay in the sandwich, and at times, the bits were a bit overpowering. The nice thing about these things are that they're also already gluten-free. 

My 3-legged cat, C3PO, certainly thought they smelled legit though. Isn't he just a cutie-pie? Not that you can really tell that well in this picture. . .

I used Daiya Cheddar Style Slices for the fake cheese. I had split the bac'n bits between the two slices of bread, and then I melted the cheese slices over the bits in an attempt to keep the bits on the bread. 

Here is my finished sandwich:

Doesn't that just look scrumptious though? Just looking at these pictures makes me want to make another one of these sandwiches. Though, maybe I'll make it a wrap instead of a sandwich. On a 10" tortilla, you probably wouldn't need to cut down any of the ingredients, plus you wouldn't have to worry about having facon and tomatoes abandoning you whenever you took a bite. This is a great recipe though, and it's highly satisfying. I hope you all love it!

CTTVCC: Crumb Bum Breakfast Cobbler

This recipe is on page 33. This is another breakfast recipe that could double as dessert. It would probably be one of the healthier desserts you could pick too. Okay, I don't know about that, but it would probably be better for you than downing a tub of vegan chocolate ice cream. This recipe could easily become one of my comfort foods. I mean warm fruity goodness is much more comforting than anything cold, in my opinion anyway.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (16 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can pear halves, drained and sliced
• 1/3 cup orange juice (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat granola cereal

I don't know how many cans of peaches my family has. I don't even remember a time when there weren't an army of canned peaches in the pantry. I just pulled out some generic peaches, and we also had a few cans of pears. Both were in no-sugar-added juice instead of heavy syrup. I never have been a big fan of heavy syrup. I admit I cheated a little bit with the pears though. I didn't use pear halves, I used sliced pears. I ended up dicing both the peaches and the pears though, but you don't have to.

I am declaring the orange juice definitely not optional. It helped cut a bit of the sweetness so it didn't just taste like I was eating fruit-shaped sugar. I heard once that drinking orange juice in the morning before a test/quiz will help you remember things you've studied better. I try to keep orange juice well-stocked during the school year.

I used Peace Cereal French Vanilla granola again. It enhanced the flavor as well in my opinion, since it's a non-fruit flavor, and therefore doesn't clash.

Here is my finished cobbler:

Okay, the first piece fell apart ingloriously, but the second piece stayed pretty much in tact. Until I ate it of course!

Not only was this cobbler delicious, but it made my kitchen radiate the delicious smell of peach and orange. With a hint of French vanilla because of the granola. (The pears don't really have a strong smell.) I made the entire recipe instead of only half or something, but part of me wishes I hadn't. The only thing that kept me from devouring the entire breakfast cobbler was the fact that I promised I'd save some for my mother. (It might be easier to save some on rushed school mornings though.) I hope you enjoy this breakfast brain-food dessert!

CTTVCC: Morning in Mexico Scramble

Due to an unexpected chain of events, I am posting this rather late. I know I'm sorry. So, I decided that because it's so late, I'll post a breakfast recipe. This recipe is on page 27. The only thing is, it really doesn't taste like a breakfast recipe. It's really good though, and I've gotten my mom absolutely hooked on tofu scramble because of this recipe, and the Morning-After Scramble recipe. Score. Anyways, you could eat this for just about any meal under the sun. You could even make up some meals as an excuse to eat this stuff.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (16-ounce) package firm tofu, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups corn tortilla chips
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 cups salsa

I used Nasoya Extra Firm Tofu again, as well as Earth Fare brand onion powder, and Whole Foods brand (365 Organic) salsa. I would recommend using a spicier salsa. After all, tofu is not exactly packed with flavor.

I used spinach and kale tortilla chips from The Better Chip. They have a bit more of a spicy flavor to them because of the kale, but regular (vegan) tortila chips would probably be just fine.


This is what my tofu scramble looked like:

Then I made part of it into a taco. And surprisingly, it went well with broccoli.

This is another one of those rather versatile foods. At first, I thought to myself: "Self, what am I going to eat this with?" And then I was like "Hmmm. . . I could always eat it on top of more chips." So, I did. And then after eating a bunch of it on more chips, I thought that maybe it would taste good on (gluten-free) toast as well. Which is did. I didn't try using any vegan margarine on the toast though, which I'm sure would taste good. Must say though, it probably wouldn't be very noticeable.

I actually only made a third of the recipe, and it was still plenty of food for 2 people.Well, actually, I made a third of the recipe twice. See, the first time, I accidentally made it with garlic powder instead of onion powder. So, once I realized what I did, I had to make a second batch with onion powder. But both times, a third of the recipe was enough for 2 people. It was pretty good though, both times. I'm not sure which one was better. I can't really describe the difference in the taste except for the obvious. One was more garlicy, and the other was more oniony. But the weird part is, the garlic powder one was more oniony, and the onion powder one was more garlicy. How crazy is that? JUST KIDDING! Anyway, if you have garlic powder, and don't have onion powder, I don't think it's worth going out and buying another bottle of spices just to make the recipe. If you feel like trying both, and telling me which one you like better, that would be awesome! As always, I'm curious to know what other people thought of the recipes. (Especially if you followed any of my modifications.)

CTTVCC: Booty Shakin' Bagel

Today's recipe is located on page 41. This is a rather tasty recipe, and great for when you don't have much time, but want to eat something filling. It's very customizable and simple, yet not too simple. (I mean, you do have to actually do something. The recipe doesn't just say "open a vegan pop-tart package and eat it.")

The recipe calls for:

• 2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons jelly (your fave flavor)
• 1 bagel, sliced in half

I used Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, which is the brand most available to me, though, I'm sure other brands would work just as well, as long as you like the flavor.

For the jelly, I used Polaner Sugar-Free Blackberry Jelly with fiber.

Now, when it comes to the bagel, I could not fin gluten-free, vegan bagels for the life of me. I looked in all the grocery stores I could find, and got nothing. So, I decided that a gluten-free, vegan English muffin would work well too. I picked Food for Life Brown Rice English muffins, and toasted one. They have just the right amount of crisp to the outside, and they're deliciously soft on the inside.

 

So here is my finished not-bagel:

 

Because I had to switch out the bagel for an English muffin, I paired this recipe with a nice warm cup of English breakfast tea soy latte, and felt thoroughly like an American person wishing to feel like a British person. Really though, the combination is very good. The simple fruit-and-(vegan)-cream-cheese-on-(gluten-free)-bread taste went very well with mellow, sweet taste of the tea latte. The recipe is one I will definitely make again.

CTTVCC: No-Need-To-Visit-A-Diner-For-Hash-Browns Casserole

This recipe is available on page 42. I apologize for posting this recipe review so late in the day, (I've been helping my older sister move,) and I apologize in advance for only having one picture of my finished product. it smelled too delicious to wait for more than one picture to dig in. While I don't normally consider broccoli a breakfast food, this breakfast casserole was pretty good. I guess I would think of it more as brunch, which is exactly what I made it for. Who needs to wake up before noon anyway? I cut the recipe in half just because I was only intending to make it for one person (me,) with maybe one or two sample-filchers. It didn't say exactly what size of a container to cook it in, so I used a glass bread pan and had plenty of room for more. I'm not positive that it would hold the entire recipe, but I'm sure it would at least come close.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Olive oil, for coating
• 1 (20 ounce) bag shredded potatoes (can also use hash-brown-style potatoes), thawed
• 1 (12 ounce) bag veggie veggie burger crumbles, thawed
• 1 (10 ounce) bag frozen broccoli florets, thawed
• Hot sauce (optional)

I used Red Star Nutritional Yeast again. I don't know why, but I like nutritional yeast in recipes, even though I'm not particularly fond of the smell of it when it's dry in the container. (My sisters complain about it every time I use the stuff.) Really though, it never ceases to amaze me that you can make it taste so much like cheese. What is this wizardry?

Instead of using soy milk, I used Unsweetened Flax Milk which is a great source of Omega-3s without fish oil. (Blech!) I don't recommend substituting flax milk in everything, but for most recipes or cereal it's great. It just tastes kinda gross in coffee or tea. The main reason I like using this stuff is because it's only 25 calories for an 8 oz serving. (The sweetened version is still only 50 calories.) It's just an easy way to keep the food slightly healthier without sacrificing flavor.

 I used generic olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and broccoli florets.

 It took me forever to find ANY hash-brown style potatoes, but I think I was just not looking in the right place. I did finally find these Alexia Hashed Browns and they worked fabulously. I don't know why Alexia has past-tense hashed browns instead of present-tense hash browns like everyone else, but whatever. Maybe they wanted more letters on their packaging.

For the veggie burger crumbles, I used Marjon Original Tofu Crumbles. I found them one day at Publix grocery store, and as soon as I realized they are gluten-free and vegan, I instantly made them a staple in my refrigerator.

I didn't use any hot sauce, just because I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. I might have tried it if we'd had hot sauce lying around the house. However, we didn't, and I didn't want to be responsible for eating all of it if I had bought a new bottle.

This is my finished casserole:

Overall, this recipe is pretty good. It took a little bit longer to fix than other recipes I've made so far, but I think that might have just been that I had to actually measure things because I cut the recipe in half. I found it very satisfying and filling. I would definitely make this recipe again, and I think my cats hope I do too. This is the sort of food that tends to make you accidentally drop crumbs, and my kittens seemed to think this was just the greatest stuff ever. Though, admittedly, they aren't that discriminant when it comes to food. Whatever. This was yummy! I honestly wish I had made more of it so I could have pigged out. I hope you all liked it too!

CTTVCC: O Baby

The recipe for today is on page 86 of TVCC. (I feel all fancy having my own abbreviation for this!) The only thing that could make this recipe better would be if you didn't have to let it cool in the fridge before eating it. I mean really, microwaves heat stuff practically instantly. Why don't we have instant cooling devices? Come on, science! Anyway, I think this recipe would work great for parties. It would also work well for hanging out with just one friend. (Especially if it's a over-nighter, particularly the kind where you don't sleep.) This could be a dessert or a snack. It's in the Spotlight on Peanut Butter section, so it doesn't really say what classification of food it's supposed to be. Heck, eat it for breakfast. Most of the ingredients are breakfast foods anyway.

The recipe calls for:

• 3 1/2 cups O-shaped vegan cereal 
• Handful vegan chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

I used Nature's Path Organic Whole O's Cereal, which is gluten-free and vegan. I understand that there are vegan O-shaped cereals out there that are not gluten-free for those of you who can eat wheat. (Watch out for the Vitamin D3 though. Apparently some brands use animal-derived D3.)

I really love Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips which are gluten-free, soy-free, and vegan. This brand also makes chocolate chunks that would probably work fabulously in this recipe as well. Those of you with big hands are lucky, because my handfulls are smaller than most people's. That is why I ended up putting a few extra in my O Babies.

Here it is with the ingredients so far:

I used generic maple syrup (which was still vegan) because that's what my family had in the pantry. Feel free to use the fancy stuff in your recipe if you'd like.

One thing I must say about the peanut butter for this recipe is: Use creamy if you can help it. I used crunchy which has less actual peanut butter in it because of the peanut chunks. If you use crunchy peanut butter, use a bit extra so that there is enough peanut butter to coat all the other ingredients.

Here is how it turned out:

 It was hard to get a square (or rectangle, rather,) that didn't fall apart because of the crunchy peanut butter not having enough actual peanut butter to it, but here is one little piece I managed to snag:

 

My little sister oh-so-helpfully ate over half of these when I wasn't looking. Oh well. At least she's eating vegan food when she eats my food. I'm sure it's better for me that she stole my dessert. Oh well. Obviously though, this stuff is really good. It's so tempting to make more of them right now, but I've got other desserts in the cookbook to make first. This is definitely going on my list of go-to recipes. Were you as impressed with these as I was?

CTTVCC: The Morning-After Scramble

This absolutely nomalicious recipe can be found on page 34. This was phenomenal. Amazing. Absolutely delicious. So so SO SOOOOOO GOOOOOD! Well, you know my opinion now. It is a wonderful recipe. For a while there, I was looking for the perfect tofu scramble recipe, and I could have saved myself a lot of time if I'd just looked at this one. This is supposed to be a breakfast recipe, and I agree. It works great for breakfast! It also would work great for lunch, dinner, or a snack. It's just scrumptious.

The recipe calls for:

• 8 oz salsa
• 1 (16-ounce) package extra-firm tofu, mashed
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

I used generic salsa because that's what my family had, but there was only mild salsa in the refrigerator, and I'm a fan of medium salsa at the minimum, so I supplemented the spice with a dash of cayenne (red) pepper.

 For the tofu, I used Nasoya Extra Firm Tofu, though, you could just as easily use Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu, (which I normally use,) that is only half the calories or the extra firm.  It just strikes me as funny that there is a "diet" version of tofu, which is normally considered a diet food in and of itself.

I used Organic Unsweetened Silk Soymilk, because the sweetened soy milk, even original flavor, always tastes weird to me in more savory recipes. If you want to use regular stuff though, knock yourself out. And hey, while you're at it, you could use any fake milk you wanted to! It seems like you can really never run out of options there.

For the Nutritional Yeast, I used Red Star brand nutritional yeast. (However, on their website, I can't find it listed in the products. But it's in my grocery store! I saw it there today when I was picking up more CTTVCC supplies!)

Here is what the tofu scramble looks like after cooking:

Don't mind the plate I hand-decorated in elementary school, but this is what it looks like on delicious toast :

Now then, this is a recipe that you either want to make for a lot of people, or only make part of it. I personally cut the recipe by a third, and I still had enough to load up 3 pieces of toast with it. This would also work as a breakfast burrito, you could eat it on tortilla chips, pita pockets, (The recipe says with potatoes or faux meat of some kind,) or just by itself. My mother tried some before she went to work, and she said it was so delicious, that she couldn't stop thinking about it all day at work. For real guys, this stuff is crazy-good.

CTTVCC: Broke-Ass Cinnamon Rolls

Open your cookbooks to page 40. This is another breakfast recipe that could be eaten anytime. Or all the time for that matter. I'm not even kidding. I made one, and then proceeded to make two more because I just couldn't get enough. These were the first cinnamon rolls I've had for as long as I can remember. There aren't many pre-made vegan cinnamon rolls that I've found, and I haven't found ANY gluten free, vegan cinnamon rolls. At all. Until these anyway, because the ingredients are so customizable.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 slice of white bread (or 5, ya know. In case you're addicted.)
• vegan margarine, to taste
• cinnamon, to taste
• sugar, to taste

I used gluten-free bread from a local bakery. Cutting off the crusts, and then smashing it flat reminded me of the good old days, way back in elementary school, when we did that to our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the cafeteria. Good times.

For the vegan margarine, I used original Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread. Then I put on a very generous amount of cinnamon, (Because I absolutely love cinnamon,) and sprinkled a bit of raw sugar on top of the cinnamon.

Once I finished microwaving it, I rolled it up, and decided I was too impatient to cut little min-cinni-rolls out of it, so I just ate it as it was. I did that with the other two as well, except for that they began to fall appart as I was rolling them, so I stacked them on top of each other, and rolled them up together. Then I decided that was much better, because it was the perfect bite size. Aren't they just adorable though?

I hope you all loved these as much as I did! This recipe is definitely an A+ in my book. You know it would probably be great for baby-sitting. and by baby, I mean toddlers or older. Because aside from accidentally getting cinnamon all over the whole kitchen if your cinnamon decides to explode, It's not that messy since it doesn't have any of that sticky sugar-paste-sause-stuff on top.

CTTVCC: Not-Just-For-Hippies Granola

Welcome to the first recipe of my cook-through of the Vegan College Cookbook! You can find it on page 36. As you can see from the title, this is a breakfast recipe. Or a snack or dessert too, I suppose. The book calls it breakfast though.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup vegan granola
• 3 tablespoons rasins or chopped dates (optional)
• 1 tablespoon almonds or nut of your choice (optional)
• 1 (6 oz container) soy yogurt (your fave flavor)

For the granola, I used Peace Cereal brand in french vanilla, which already has almond slivers in it, so I didn't add any additional nuts. It's gluten-free for those who have that limitation.

I don't really like raisins, and I didn't have dates, (except for tonight! ;P just kidding.) Anyway, so I used craisins. which I do like. Very much. Though, to be honest, I didn't measure them. I just kind of tossed them on top. But that's the thing about this recipe, It's super-customizable, and because it's not actually baking anything, the proportions don't matter quite as much.

For the yogurt, I used blueberry flavored Amande brand vegan yogurt, which is made from almonds instead of soy, but like I said, who cares? I've kind of been watching the amount of soy I eat anyway because too much soy can cause problems, kind of like too much of anything can cause problems, and sooooooo much vegan food is soy-based. (Besides, my favorite health-food grocery store has been running sales on the almond yogurt.) Amande Yogurt has live culture bacteria, (which are NOT animals, don't worry. They're in a totally different scientific kingdom.) Anyway, the live cultures are really good for your digestive system, and supposedly consuming live culture bacteria helps your body respond better to stress and recover from stress faster.

So here is the finished concoction:

 
I am declaring this rather delicious. I'll probably end up eating the rest of the box of granola this way because I don't love eating granola in just milk without anything else. It's like trying to eat crumbs with a spoon. It doesn't really work for me. Actually, I hadn't even meant to buy granola when I picked this up last week. It was on sale, and I just grabbed it thinking it was flakes with a little bit of granola to make it not boring like the brand's other cereals do. But good thing I had it, that way I could make this recipe, right?

I hope you all enjoy this recipe! Got feedback? I'd love to read your comments!

Ditch Dairy

Enough Said. This infographic thoroughly disgusted me. Seriously, this covers all the pro-dairy arguments I've ever come across. I'd say this is pretty convincing. Who ever made this is pure genius. This has a creative commons license, so you can share it with all your friends and family who haven't cut milk out of their diets. The best part of getting rid of milk is the substitutions you can use. There is such an amazing variety of substitution products. I will be posting about my favorite dairy substitutes soon.

Any Comments? Thoughts? Leave a comment!

Quick, Good-For-You Breakfast

It's been awhile since I've posted much of anything, but here's an original recipe that's cheap, vegan, and allergy friendly. No gluten, soy, corn, peanuts, etc. Now, before you turn your nose up at oatmeal for being boring, old-people food, let me tell you this is one of my favorite morning recipes. So yes. Oatmeal.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of oats
1 tablespoon of milled flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
8 oz of very strong brewed tea (flavor variable)
Sweetner to taste (typically 1 packet of 0 calorie stevia sweetner)

Instructions: mix all dry ingredients together in a microwavable bowl. Add tea to bowl, and microwave for 1 minute to 1 minute and 30 seconds. Stir and allow oatmeal to cool enough to eat. Enjoy!

Nearly all of the ingredients can be bought in bulk. Oatmeal, flaxseed, cinnamon, and sweetners can be purchased at stores like Costco. Oats and flaxseed can be bought in bulk from specialty grocery stores. Buying larger quantities reduces the cost significantly.

The oatmeal base has fiber and protein, flaxseed has protein and omega-3, cinnamon has Antioxidants, and tea has vitamins and caffeine in addition to Antioxidants. All of these are essential to a balanced diet and help kick start your day.

Now, my favorite part about this recipe is how variable you can make it. The variation is in the tea. Using a variety of flavors helps to keep this basic food from getting boring. I prefer to steep my tea overnight for oatmeal to get the maximum amount of flavor from the tea. Because it is a morning food, I would suggest black tea because it contains more caffeine than other blends. Some of my favorite teas to make oatmeal with are black chai, black apple chai, black vanilla chai, morning thunder (a black matcha tea,) black Madagascar vanilla, nutcracker sweet (a holiday tea,) and orange black teas. Other non-black teas that are good include sugar cookie sleigh ride (a holiday tea,) green chai, green tea with red Antioxidants (strawberry and orange,) spiced apple herbal tea, raspberry herbal tea and others.

The best part of this easy breakfast is that it is filling; high in protein and fiber; omega-3 rich; full of caffeine, vitamins, and Antioxidants (depending on the tea you use;) and only 100 Calories!